On Patriotism
Seeing as we’ve lately had yet another Australia Day, with all its flag-brandishing, swearword-screaming and beer-spilling-on-train-floor (at least, that was the bit I saw), I’ve been compelled to give some thought to the subject of patriotism.
Patriotism can be loosely defined as “national pride”, and it is something that I have always found a bit hard to logically understand (although I can see some people’s need to have an object of pride to give their life meaning, whatever that object be).
Because, seriously, the country where you happen to be born is in no way chosen by you – it is an entirely random outcome. So why should you feel proud about it? Being proud of belonging to a certain nationality makes just as much sense as being proud of being 173.6 centimetres tall or of belonging to blood group A.
As for the “democratic” argument for national pride, i.e. “Look at us, we’re such a free country compared to such-and-such, we’ve got freedom of speech, sexual liberation and free and fair elections, etc. etc., so we can feel proud of our country because it’s so much better than such-and-such” – apart from sounding arrogant, this argument is excessively simplistic, failing to take into account possible advantages of other societies over one’s own.
February 6th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
I think that the biggest problem with Australian patriotism is the national flag. In the American States of Partial Unity, the jingoist rednecks have appropriated the Confederate flag as the symbol of their jingoism and redneckity. In Aussieland, we have no Confederate flag, so the jingoist rednecks (or, as we call them, “bogans”) have appropriated the Australian flag as their symbol. Wearing the Australian flag should be a sign of national pride, but instead it’s a sign that you’re off to the beach to beat up some Muslims.
February 7th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Well, as you can see, I’m not a big fan of national pride itself either. And neither should you be.
March 5th, 2010 at 12:13 am
I AM DANISH I AM PROUD TO BE DANISH DANISH IS BADASS
GRRRRRRRRR FEAR MAH DANISH FANGS GRRRRRRRR
March 28th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Danish eh? Well I’ll tell you what, I eat danishes for breakfast! MWA HA HA HAAA!